


Atli: An Introduction

by firstversesameasthethird (itsedgzoi)



Category: Mass Effect
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-10-08
Updated: 2014-10-08
Packaged: 2018-02-20 08:52:21
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,066
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2422679
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/itsedgzoi/pseuds/firstversesameasthethird
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Just a short piece introducing an OC of mine.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Atli: An Introduction

**Author's Note:**

> Personal Notes- This really isn't anything groundbreaking, but I just had to get myself to post something for people to see. This is mostly motivation for me to write more.

“Let’s go on upstairs,” Drew said, setting down his drink.   
“Alright,” Atli said nervously. The asari followed the human upstairs, away from the party, where they settled down on an old couch. Drew reached his hand down the front of her human style v-neck, and pulled her in close for a kiss.  
After continuing with that for some time, Atli pushed back. “Let me show you something, something I don’t think you’ve seen,” she said, and tried to clear her mind. That was difficult due to the combined effects of the excitement of the evening (including meeting this gorgeous human who was on the couch with her) and the Caribou Lou. 151, Malibu rum, and pineapple juice, she thought to herself. Mentally repeating the ingredients to the drink helped her center herself, and she soon decided that she was as ready to bond. She hadn’t ever done it before, but she had always heard one phrase used regarding bonding. “You’re about to embrace eternity,” she whispered, and her eyes faded to black, as did everything else.  
Barely a millisecond later, everything in her world exploded in every possible (and impossible) way except for literally. Her excitement at bonding combined with the excitement that Drew had felt when he had first left Earth. Her nervousness combined with what he had felt when he had first signed up for the Alliance military. Time, space and even self ceased to have any meaning as two minds temporarily became one.   
Atli felt better than she ever had. However, after an indeterminate amount of time, the bond started to fade, and she started to return to reality as she had known it. She noticed that a disgusting-looking line of spittle was coming out of Drew’s mouth, and he appeared to be having some kind of minor spasm. “Snap out of it, Drew,” she said in a slightly worried tone.   
All that changed was that his spasms grew a bit weaker.  
“This isn’t funny,” she said, more worriedly. Despite how anxious she felt, Atli couldn’t help but notice that she felt physically amazing. She walked a few feet over to the bathroom to look in the mirror, and noticed that she looked better, too. She thought she knew what was happening.  
She walked back to the couch, her heart seemingly pounding in time with the dance music coming from downstairs. She put two fingers on Drew’s neck to check for a pulse, and almost broke down crying when she found none. “I’m an ardat-yakshi,” she whispered to herself, unable to stop a tear from running down her blue cheek.   
She tried to remember everyone else who was downstairs at the party. If there were any asari, they would surely know what had happened. A grin twitched on Atli’s lips as she remembered that there were no others of her species present. I’m still going to have to hide this, she reminded herself, it’s not like humans just drop dead while getting hot and heavy normally.   
She found Drew’s belt on the floor. He had been in uniform, complete with a loaded pistol, which she pulled out of the holster on his belt. She readied the weapon, and took a deep breath. She placed the barrel of the gun right on the already dead man’s forehead. She pulled the trigger without hesitation, and screamed as red blood and gray brain matter splattered on everywhere.  
The music kept playing. For some reason she thought the music would stop. Still, she heard shouts from downstairs, and the door that Drew had closed for privacy was quickly knocked open. Atli and Drew’s mutual friend Taylor- another human- stood there in shock, trying to comprehend what she saw before her. Atli had never been able to convincingly produce fake tears, so she stayed down on her knees, looking towards Drew’s body, with her back to the door.  
“What happened, Atli?” Taylor asked, putting a hand on the asari’s shoulder.   
Atli gave a quiet sniff as she weakly gestured towards the pistol which lay by Drew’s hand. “I tried to stop him,” she whispered.  
“It’s going to be alright,” Taylor said. Atli was glad that the woman couldn’t see her face, because she could hardly hide her wide grin.   
“Alright, that will be everything I need, ma’am. I’m sorry for your loss. The nav-points to all of the therapists on the Citadel have been forwarded to your omni-tool, if you feel like you need to see one,” the C-Sec officer said grimly.   
“Thank you,” Atli said softly. She had gotten better at faking grief in the two days since the party. However, she still wasn’t sure what she thought of what had happened. The logical part of her mind knew that one she had done was horrible, and that she should turn herself in because she was a murderer and an ardat-yakshi. On the other hand, it had been the best experience of her whole life, with no close second. Every moment that she had unintentionally sucked the life out of Drew, causing the stroke that she had hidden with a bullet, had been the purest pleasure that she had ever experienced, light-years beyond anything she could imagine even in her wildest, most impossible dreams.  
She was at an impasse with herself. She had almost turned herself in a dozen times, but she had stopped herself every time. Everyday her desire to confess diminished, as her desire to do it again grew and grew. She decided that she couldn’t continue living in this state of constant denial, she had to make a decision. She could either be a happy killer, or a miserable person who had stuck to her morals.  
She wished she could have taken the second path. The path of honor, honesty, and morality. But that wasn’t a realistic option. Living life as a powerful entity was better than being secluded away in a miserable monastery no matter how you looked at it. Freedom was the top priority for most sentient species, whether they consciously realize it or not. So, in many ways, her decision was a foregone conclusion.  
She called up her friend Taylor on her omni-tool. “Hey. How’s it going?” she asked. “I was wondering if I could borrow one of your nice dresses. I just need to get out and meet someone new after everything that happened.”   
Atli found herself shivering with anticipation.


End file.
